Adriana Cohen: Thanks to Kanye, groupthink is broken

Tuesday

Entertainment royalty and prominent blacks in American society, long beholden to the Democrat Party, had a rare breakout moment this week, setting the social media stratosphere ablaze.

Kayne West, the uber-famous rapper, unleashed this grenade on his 28 million Twitter followers on Wednesday: "Obama was in office for eight years and nothing in Chicago changed." This is true — liberal policies at work in Chicago and other inner cities like Detroit haven't reduced gang violence, improved underfunded schools or freed blacks from the chains of generational poverty. All one has to do is compare the statistics on cities like Chicago when Barack Obama took office to those from when he left to see, as West rightfully noted, nothing had changed.

What did change this week is that someone had the courage to break from the iron grip of conformist thinking and challenge liberal orthodoxy.

This is a tectonic shift on several fronts, the first being that a famous black rapper challenged progressive policies of a black former president that have failed the black community. The second, and perhaps more significant political and cultural shift, is that a celebrity, long used by the Democrat Party to keep rich establishment folks in power, broke from groupthink and dared to think for himself. And he had the courage to express his views on social media, along with a photo of himself wearing a Make America Great Again hat, to his massive following.

In a string of tweets, Kayne West promoted individualism and the importance of being a free thinker, and encouraged people to speak their minds without fear.

He tweeted: "Free thinkers don't fear retaliation for your thoughts. The traditional thinkers are only using thoughts and words but they are in a mental prison. You are free. You've already won. Feel energized. Move in love not fear. Be afraid of nothing."

He added: "You don't have to agree with trump but the mob can't make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought."

Indeed. No men or women are free if they're not allowed to think for themselves and express those views openly without punishment or ridicule. But of course that's not what happened. Left-wing media — long in the tank for the Democratic Party — immediately pounced and accused West, a father, business mogul and enormously successful musician, of being mentally unfit. Why? Because the Democratic Machine mocks and marginalizes anyone who supports President Trump, or challenges its talking points and the political narratives it uses to get votes — especially within minority constituencies.

Enter Kim Kardashian West, who honorably defended her husband against attacks from left-wing media and others who questioned his mental state. She tweeted to her nearly 60 million followers: "He's a free thinker, is that not allowed in America? Because some of his ideas differ from yours you have to throw in the mental health card? That's just not fair. He's actually out of the sunken place when he's being himself which is very expressive."

Chance the Rapper also backed up West by challenging deep-rooted conventional thinking. He tweeted, "Black people don't have to be democrats," sending shock waves through the system and causing masses of "triggered" liberals to flock to "safe spaces" coast to coast.

"Safe spaces" will undoubtedly get very crowded real soon because, thanks to iconoclasts like West, his spouse and Chance the Rapper questioning mob mentality and speaking their minds, others will become emboldened to do the same, which is exactly what our Founding Fathers intended when they crafted the 1st Amendment.

Who knew it would be rappers and reality stars who strengthen our critical right to free speech, and use their influential platforms on social media and beyond to promote individualism and free thinkers?

Somewhere in the universe, Socrates is smiling.

Adriana Cohen is a syndicated columnist with the Boston Herald. Her columns are provided by Creator’s Syndicate.

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